Magic mushroom dispensary still open after closing announced

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An illegal magic mushroom dispensary in London remains open weeks after the chain claimed it was shuttering all of its Ontario stores, citing repeated police raids.

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A spokesperson for Fun Guyz contacted various media outlets, including The Free Press, on Nov. 22 to say its roughly 30 locations across the province, including several in Southwestern Ontario, would be closing in three days.

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The cash-only stores sell a range of magic mushrooms – a drug that remains illegal in Canada – and other products containing psilocybin, a naturally occurring psychedelic that can produce a range of effects, including altered perception and intense emotions.

Police have launched more than 120 raids on Fun Guyz stores and warehouses since the chain began operating in 2023, said the company spokesperson, who declined to provide his name, citing the legal status of the business.

“Obviously, when they raid a store they take a lot of products. The product costs money. It’s very hard with those losses to keep operating,” he said.

“We just can’t keep up the fight anymore.”

Fun Guyz would continue to operate as an online-only business after the brick-and-mortar shops closed, he said.

But the London outlet at 256 Richmond St., north of Horton Street, remained open Thursday. An employee inside said she was recently called back to work but didn’t have any other information.

The Fun Guyz spokesperson said he didn’t know the London shop is still operating.

“I don’t work with the London location,” he said Thursday.

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The London storefront opened in May 2023 and police raided it a month later, seizing $20,000 worth of product and $635 cash, police said at the time. Three London residents were charged with drug possession for the purpose of trafficking.

The Richmond Street shop quickly reopened, as did other Fun Guyz outlets in Chatham, St. Thomas and Windsor after repeated police raids.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether the other Southwestern Ontario stores are still open. Phone calls and messages sent over social media went unanswered.

One of the men charged in the London bust, Samer Akila, 31, has launched a constitutional challenge, arguing that outlawing psilocybin infringes on Canadians’ “freedom of thought.”

Akila’s lawyers, London lawyer Jim Dean and Toronto lawyer Paul Lewin, say magic mushrooms are a “freedom of thought tool” that promotes mindfulness, openness, well-being, spirituality and ego dissolution, among other things. The case remains before the courts.

dcarruthers@postmedia.com

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